Sophocles Electra

Performed in the original Greek

by pupils of CNHS and RGS

Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd March 2007

7.30pm CNHS Hall

Adults: £3, concessions and children:  £2, family tickets (2 adults and 2 children): £ 5

Tickets available from Mrs Bates after half term.  Telephone 0191 281 1768

Electra is set at a time before courts and police, when the only way to punish a murderer was for the family to seek revenge. When the murderer is your mother, then justice is up close and very personal. Electra has seen her father murdered by her mother Clytemnestra, helped by her lover Aegisthus; as a result Electra and her sister Chrysothemis now face a barren life, unmarried and disinherited. Electra waits for the return of their bother Orestes to exact vengeance on their mother. Although the play begins with the return of Orestes, Electra remains unaware of his return and his trick to gain entry into the palace. That trick is to feign his own death and the report of his death is a devastating blow to Electra, but when Orestes comes with the ashes and she asks to hold them, her lament over the ashes leads to the recognition of brother and sister and the swift accomplishment of their purpose: the murder of their mother, followed by the murder of Aegisthus.